If you are even distantly aware of the DTH and broadcasting industry right now, you know that the latest thing that DTH operators are offering to the subscribers is OTT applications and subscriptions. To make sure that their subscribers are not spending time away from the TV screens and their platforms, these DTH operators are partnering up with OTT service providers to bring the content on the TV screen itself. Now in a new iteration of this, Dish TV has partnered up with Amazon Prime Video to bring the application to its soon to be launched hybrid Set-Top Box. The interesting to note is that Dish TV would become the second DTH operator in the country to offer such a service, as Airtel Digital TV has been the first one to bring it.
Hybrid Set-Top Boxes Explained
The hype around the Hybrid Set-Top Boxes started when the subscribers wanted to consume their OTT content and the satellite TV channels at a single place, controlled by a single remote. Although there were options available in the market like the Amazon Fire TV Stick and others, they did not do a solid job of unifying the two platforms and the two types of content. Thus, to fill this gap, Reliance Jio with its Jio 4K Set-Top Box and Airtel Digital TV with its Xstream Box entered the market. Now, the good thing about the Hybrid Set-Top Box is that it allows the subscribers to control both the OTT applications and the satellite TV channels from a single remote, hence the word “hybrid”. Now with this new announcement, we can be sure that Dish TV is soon going to debut its own Hybrid Set-Top Box. On this box, the subscribers will be able to access various OTT applications, and their satellite TV channels as well, since the box would be connected, both to the Dish as well as the internet.
Dish TV Partners Up with Amazon Prime Video
Another notable thing that has happened here is the Dish TV and Amazon Prime partnership. While there are a lot of dongle-based OTT options for the DTH subscribers, there are very few in the market which offer the Amazon Prime application on them. However, this would be different with the Dish TV Hybrid Set-Top Box as it will come with Amazon Prime Video support. Owing to this, the subscribers would be able to access Hollywood, Bollywood, Indian regional movies, top TV shows, stand-up comedies, kids programs, including critically-acclaimed Indian and global Amazon Originals.
Speaking about the new partnership with Amazon, Mr Anil Dua, Executive Director & Group CEO, Dish TV India Limited said, “We, at Dish TV, always work on offering innovative entertainment solutions and superlative experience to customers and the association with Amazon Prime Video is a step in the same direction. We are delighted to have Amazon Prime Video on board with us to offer its premium content on both our Dish TV and d2h platforms with our hybrid set-top boxes that are going to be launched soon.”
Gaurav Gandhi, Director and Country GM, Amazon Prime Video India also remarked, “At Amazon Prime Video, we constantly strive to offer customers, the best-in-class entertainment across genres and languages, that can be consumed anytime, anywhere and on a screen of their choice. Towards this effort, we are delighted to announce our association with Dish TV for their upcoming hybrid set-top boxes.”
Dish TV Hybrid Set-Top Box Differs from DishSMRT Stick
It is worth noting that Dish TV also offers the DishSMRT Stick for its subscribers and under D2h, the subscribers can get the Magic Stick which offer OTT applications to the consumers. But, the Hybrid Set-Top Boxes would be a step ahead of the dongle based service as it will offer more features and better support for OTT applications like it is the case with Amazon Prime Video. The DishSMRT and Magic Stick, both do not come with Amazon Prime support, but the Hybrid Set-Top Box by Dish TV would be different in this case.
